Marketing Campaign Execution, Chanel Nr. 5

On the past months we have been exposed to a massive advertising campaign launched by Coco Chanel to promote its top of the line and historical fragrance, Chanel No. 5. I saw it for the first time during Christmas walking through London’s shopping district. Streets were invaded by Brad Pitt’s face. I thought, henceforth, that the firm was launching for the first time a perfume focused on the men segment. 

This interesting used of advertising got mi attention so I went to the first high end department store that I found on my way and asked a Chanel’s shop assistant if that product was for men. Promptly she told me that it wasn’t a product for gents that it was targeted for the female market.

At this point, I was confused. So I decided to search online more about the reasons behind this advertisement and later on analyse with a strategic marketing point of view if it was right or wrong. Certainly, the campaign has been extremely controversial among the marketing community and the general public. Most of the people have been extremely critical and superficial studying its meaning. Personally I think that it’s one of those brilliant ideas, where the marketing team finds a great insight, develops a good message, but, somewhere down the road the message gets distorted. From my perspective this happened because of an inadequate communication    

 between the firm and its advertising agency  i.e. they were at cross purposes

The insight behind the ad is about “women’s spirit” seeing through the eyes of men, says Brad Pitt. For me this insight has a deep and meaningful message. Perfumes’ first trace back to the Mesopotamian and Egyptian era. It was used for religious and cosmetic purposes. Also, it is believed that the Egyptian queen Cleopatra used special fragrances, which helped her to enchant Julius Caesar and afterwards Mark Anthony. This triangle between women, perfume and men has existed since time immemorial. Brad Pitt’s argument explains that perfume help men revive in their mind memories of their beloved women and impeccable insight!

The problem came when the advertising agency decided to have Brad Pitt as the central figure of the ad. The advert’s director got lost with Brad Pitt’s halo rather than to expose clearly the message to the final consumer. Even though this was a big misinterpretation of the message the buzz around the ad has been huge, nowadays, more than 7,669,969 people have seen the commercial on YouTube. This helps Chanel to increase its brand awareness, relevance and maybe differentiation among consumers. Finally, to evaluate Chanel Nr.5 campaign’s performance we’ll have to wait until Chanel releases its quarterly financial report.

From a marketing perspective I can concluded that the most important thing in a marketing plan is to communicate effectively your brand message. Everything else is just minor tweaks on the master piece. This is what I missed in Chanel Nr.5 advertising campaign. 

“It's not a journey. Every journey ends, but we go on. The world turns and we turn with it. Plans disappear. Dreams take over. But wherever I go, there you are. My luck, my fate, my fortune. Chanel No. 5. Inevitable.”